Monday, March 31, 2014

Camp NaNoWriMo kicks off tomorrow. Tonight, I plan on watching TV while doing some last minute research. I still need to think about the monastic society Simon comes from and come up with my emergency list. Since I'm telling the story in a non-linear fashion, I can actually hold off on some of the research.

The ideas are still coming, which is good. However, the big blurry bit called The Middle is still unclear. Fortunately, my unorthodox structure will make for some nice workarounds until I get things where I want them.

In other news, I bought a Groupon this morning for getting a photo printed on a piece of slate. Now I have to figure out which one I want printed on it and who I want to give it to.

Friday, March 28, 2014

So a friend of mine just left work for the last time as he starts a different job on Monday. We've worked together for twelve years. It doesn't seem like very long in the grand scheme of things but it's the equivalent of starting school with someone in first grade and seeing them most days until graduating high school. It's a depressing day.

In not as depressing news, I'm feeling pretty confident about April's NaNoWriMo prospects. I need to take a few minutes between now and Tuesday to make my emergency idea list but I'm feeling pretty confident about things early on. I've got the beginning and the end and I know how the frame story is going to work. Some of the middle is still murky, though.

I'm toying with the idea of releasing it for free on a dedicated blog several chapters at a time over the course of a month or so. After editing, of course.

If I do NaNo in July, I'll either do the Mysterium sequel or do the steampunk vs. kaiju thing I've been kicking around.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Just noticed Camp NaNoWriMo is coming around again. I've been throwing some ideas around the last week or so but I don't know if I'll have the concepts ready by April 1st. So, not sure I'm throwing my hat into the ring. Although I really want to write the first chapter. How many books have you read where two people and a dog are flying a beat-up old car near Neptune on the first page?

I don't remember if I specifically articulated it on the blog but I've been reading a lot of self published freebies on the Kindle lately, testing the waters, as it were. I'm confident that I can hang with a lot what people are putting out. I've also had some interesting conversations with some self-published authors via email, like Edward Lorn and Jason Brant, and self-publishing some of my stuff doesn't seem as unlikely as it did a few months ago.

The way I look at it, my army of followers on Goodreads are going to be a huge asset whether I go traditional or selfpub. Since fledglings are usually thrown out of the nest with little promotion behind them anyway, why should I take a smaller piece of the pie when I don't have to? Something to think about.

My reading funk continues, although I've read a few gems like The Ruins, A Simple Plan, and Galveston in the last few weeks. I keep thinking that I've reached my reading limit and should vomit forth some words soon to free things up. Or at least make with some editing.

I didn't sell anything at my art show a couple weeks ago but I did sell one of the photos I had on display the following week. I didn't make what I wanted on it but I did manage to pay for all six photos with it. Now if I could sell another one and pay for the frames, I'd be in the gravy zone.